Thursday, 20 December 2012

The local tuffeau stone is so soft, it is inevitable that centuries old buildings are covered in graffiti. Some of the most remarkable is to be found in the Guardroom attached to the Louis XI Tower on the citadel in Loches.

Created by Protestant troops stationed here during the Wars of Religion (16th century) these are more bas relief sculpture than graffiti. A frieze of lifesize characters stretches around two walls, all soldiers in different poses, with weapons and some detail of costume and facial features.

2 comments:

That room in the Guardroom is superb... as is the magnificent commentary and lightshow that goes with it. I have now watched it twice [in three visits - first one was too crowded] and saw new things the second time.

Tim: the commentary is great, although probably too long for most people's attention span. It's a great idea to combine it with spotlights that move from figure to figure as they are discussed, but it does mean you have to visit when it is not crowded -- not hard at Loches fortunately.

About Us

Susan was born in Victoria, but moved to Queensland when she was 11. Simon was born in London, but moved to Canberra when he was 7, and to Queensland when he was 28. In 1997 they moved to London. Susan worked for a large heritage and nature conservation trust and Simon taught music technology at tertiary level.

Now we live in Preuilly-sur-Claise, a small town with a population of less than 1000 people in the south of the Loire Valley. We write about the restoration of our house, the history of our local area, nature, cooking and anything else that strikes us as interesting. When we are not blogging we run Loire Valley Time Travel, doing individually tailored tours of the Touraine for anglophone visitors in our classic Citroën, Célestine.

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